Nationwide power outage hits Dominican Republic

A massive power outage left most of the Dominican Republic without electricity, disrupting transportation, businesses, and public services across the country, according to authorities.

The blackout began at 1:23 p.m. local time on Tuesday after a major failure at a power substation in San Pedro de Macorís, in the eastern Dominican Republic, according to the state-owned power transmission company ETED.

ETED reported that a transmission line malfunction caused the nationwide loss of power. By early evening, electricity had started to return in some areas.

Interior Minister Faride Raful said the government deployed the National Police to maintain security during the outage and implemented special traffic measures to control congestion.

ETED said technical teams were working to correct the problem and restore power “in the shortest possible time.” The agency explained that the failure triggered cascading disconnections at several generation plants, leading to a total system shutdown.

Energy and Mines Minister Joel Santos said that as of 8:30 p.m., approximately 1,442 megawatts, about 42 percent of the country’s normal demand, had been reconnected as part of a gradual recovery process.